Green Oak Ranch is part of an area of early California land grants (i.e., Rancho Buena Vista, Rancho Vallecitos de Los San Marcos and Rancho Agua Hedionda), and was first settled in the 1800’s by homesteaders who used the land for livestock, fruit trees, vineyards, barley, tomatoes, gladiolas and timber.
Artifacts indicate the area’s earliest inhabitants may have been descendants of the Kumeyaay people, whose traditions had their beginnings 1,000 years ago. Pottery, arrowheads, milling tools, basketry, mortars and pestles, polishing stones, and various chopping and scraping tools suggest people lived in and around Green Oak Ranch as early as the 1500’s, or even before.
The San Diego Museum of Man and the South Coast Information Center, San Diego State University, record four prehistoric sites within the boundaries of Green Oak Ranch. These sites are identified as: (i) W-2007, recorded by Malcolm Rogers, located on the eastern property boundary; (ii) SDi-8347 (W-2757) recorded by R. Franklin in 1980 (The site is characterized by bedrock comprising slicks and mortars. A potsherd and three marine shell fragments were found on the site.); (iii) SDi-9251 (W-3188) recorded by Jim Brock in 1982 (The site is described as having moderate density with felsite and quartz like flakes, one amorphous core, one mano fragment. The site is on a ridge in the southwest corner of the site.); and, (iv) W-3190. (The site was discovered in 1982 at the northern end of the property and contained one andesite flake.).
Twenty-one other prehistoric and historic archaeological sites are located within a one-mile radius of Green Oak Ranch.
The Jesse Newton and James Irwin families built homes on what is now Green Oak Ranch. The Newton house, which is Green Oak Ranch’s “City Hall,” is a protected historic landmark. The Irwin a house, known as a “Chula,” was on the northeast portion of the Ranch, near the large cross that is a landmark along Highway 78.
In the 1930′s, Green Oak Ranch was the part of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp that housed four Missouri National Guard companies. The Guardsmen had responsibility for patrolling the Pacific coastline from northern San Diego County to the northern edge of Los Angeles County.
For further information contact Green Oak Ranch (760) 727-0251.